122 Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1761-1769.

Lib. J. R.
& U. S.

take Notice and be at home to receive them, hereof fail not at
your
Sir
To the honble Daniel Dulany Esq^r Your Obed^t Serv^ts
Secretary of the Province of Maryland. Sons of Liberty

I begf leave to represent to this honourable Board that I
received, this Day the Letter hereunto annexed, and have
understood a Number of People are expected to Assemble here
on the 28^th Instant, in order to oblige the several Officers to
open their Offices, and without paying any Regard to the late
Act of Parliament for imposing Stamp Duties in America, to
proceed to Business, and there is the greatest Reason to appre-
hend from the present popular Intemperance that, if any
Officer should refuse to act as required, He will be exposed in
his Person and his Property, to the Rage of the Populace.
I thought to have availed myself of the Circumstance of M^r
Calvert's Death, and the appointment of M^r Hammersly to the
Office of Secretary, but have been given to understand that if

p. 407

my Commission is at an End the Governor will be called upon
to make a new Appointment.
In Proceeding to Business at this time, I should Act against
my own Sentiments, and should have no Scruple in laying
down my Office to avoid that very disagreeable Situation, if
there were not Reasons to apprehend the most inconvenient
Consequences to the Governor from my taking that Step, and
in those, the utter Subversion of all Order.
A new Appointment requires the use of Stampt Paper, as
much as the Process in the Courts of Law, and if a due Respect
to the person of the Governor should not be preserved, He
seems to have as little Power to protect himself, as I have, but
if that Respect should be openly, and Violently trampled upon,
and personal Indignities be offered, the Example, and the Con-
sequences would be much worse in his Case than in that of a
Subordinate Officer constrained to yield to the Times.
Under these Circumstances I request the Advice and Opin-
ion of this Board, what Part I ought to take ?
If matters should be pushed to the Extremities apprehended
in Regard to the Officers, and there be probable Grounds to
expect that upon my Resignation no Application for the pur-
pose intimated will be made to his Excellency, I shall not
hesitate one Moment in Resigning my Office. If it should be
thought expedient for me to Continue in it in Order to avert
the greater Inconvenience of an Insult to the Person of the
Supreme Magistrate, I shall give up all thoughts of Resigning.
If the latter Course should be advised in the present Distrac-